Monday, July 29, 2013

The story of Superman is known to everyone, so there is no point going into too much detail about how he came about. Krypton is a planet which is going to be destroyed as it has used up all of its natural resources and cannot survive. Jor-El(Crowe) and his wife Lara have just had a baby boy and he is the first natural birth on the planet in years. They fear for his safety so they send their so, Kal-El to Earth so he has a chance. They give him a genetic codex of the Krypton race and let him go. A baddie called General Zod(Shannon) and his crew are out to cause havoc and he kills Jor-El. He gets caught and he is put in a prison called the Phantom Zone to cool off! Krpyton is finally destroyed when the planet explodes and Zod and he crew are released.

Kal-El lands in Kansas where he finds a family.You know the story. He is called Clark Kent(Cavill) and he wanders the earth working in crappy jobs. A reporter called Lois Lane(Adams) is in the Arctic doing a story on a government discovery of an alien ship. It turns out that it from Krypton and Clark wanders aboard it and meets a hologram of Jor-El. He tells him where he came from etc. Lane comes aboard and she sees all of this and he rescues her when she gets into trouble. She writes a story about it for the Daily Planet but her editor rejects it. She finds out who this superman is but she keeps his secret which is handy. I didn't like the fact that Lois finds out who Superman is so early in the film. It didn't seem right to me.

Anyway, Clark embraces his superhuman side and becomes Superman. Zod arrives on Earth and threatens to kill everyone unless Superman comes with him. He does so. They are seeking the codex but Superman won't give it to them. Little do they know that it is in him and they fight to get it. The rest of the movie has awesome fights and special effects. I suppose that the old Superman movies can't compare in this way, but I have to say that I liked Christopher Reeve as Superman. Cavill does a decent job and he looks strong etc. Adams was likeable as Lois Lane. Shannon was very good as Zod. He is a good baddie and I liked him in this film. The movie ends with Clark starting work at the Daily Planet and of course, Lois already knows who he is, but will keep his secret. Hmmm. Not sure about that, but all in all, it was enjoyable.Lots of fighting and great special effects. I give it a 7/10.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A group of college students are going to a cabin in the woods for a vacation(original!!!) and theyare the usual mix of idiots and bimbos. They arrive at the cabin and one by one they start to disappear. There seems to be a killer in the woods and he is waiting to murder them all in different ways.Theybegin to wonder who the killer is. Is it one of their own? They are chased by the killer and they lock themselves into the cabin to survive. They are all killed until there is only one left. The twist in this movie is that the students were taking part in an experiment arranged by their psychology professor. They are all alive and well. Then at the end of this, they are really going to a cabin in the woods and the professor is the one who is stalking them.

This movie was bad. It was so devoid of originality that you knew what was coming next. The twist was silly and it was just boring. I would avoid this if you get irritated by stupidity. The characters were not likeable and they did stupid things. It was just too by the numbers for me. I will give it a 2/10.

Holly Parker (Miller)is working at a PR firm with her best friend, Jan(Burns). They are competing for a promotion and things get dirty when Jan sleeps with Holly's boyfriend, David(Todd Babcock). This splits Holly and David up and she is no longer pals with Jan. She decides that she is moving out of the apartment she had shared with Jan and into a new one with a woman called Tess(Lange). Tess seems like a quiet, shy person with little confidence. She and Holly become fast friends. Holly goes back to work and she tries to get her life back on track. She and David have to see each other as he is a client of the PR firm and Jan still works there so she can't avoid her.

She tells Tess what happened and Tess seems to want Holly for herself. She changes her hairstyle and she wants Holly to be with her and not have anything to do with Jan or David. Unfortunately, Holly makes amends with Jan and David which does not go down well with Tess. She is becoming possessive and jealous. Holly discovers that Tess has a murky past and that her friend in high school committed suicide. Tess murders Jan and she tries to kill David. Holly finds out that Tess is a psycho and that shewill do whatever it takes to have Holly as her only friend. She tries to kill Holly too, but she doesn't succeed and David and Holly end up moving into their own apartment in the end of the movie.

Warning!!!This movie is bad. The acting is terrible and it is so cheap that it is just crappy. I liked the original movie Single White Female with Bridget Fonda, but this is just a cheap rip off with nothing great to speak of. It is just poorly made and boring.Avoid....It gets a 2/10.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

The movie begins in 1942 with a young boy making a nude jigsaw. His mother comes in and sees what he is up to and she shouts at him and is disgusted with him. He is furious with her and murders her. The police come and don't realise that he is the one who killed mommy! Cut to forty years later. It is 1982 and at a Boston college, the kids are dying. There is some maniac on campus going around with a chainsaw murdering people. The cops are called in and Lieutenant Bracken(George) is on the case. There is a weirdo called Willard who they think is the killer but he turns out to be just a weirdo.

The killer is putting pieces of the nude jigsaw together. He is using human body parts to make his own bizarre puzzle. A former tennis ace called Mary(Linda Day) goes undercover at the college to catch the killer. She is working with the police. She can't figure out who it is until in the end it is revealed that the Dean of the college is the killer. He gets Mary alone and he tries to kill her, but the cops come in time to save her. She has been helped by a student called Kendall. They find the sewn together body parts. They kill the Dean and as Kendall has a look at the patched up corpse, a hand reaches up and grabs his testicles and rips them off for some reason! What a weird ending to a movie, but I have to say I didn't see it coming!

A fun slasher movie which was worth a watch. I liked it and I would recommend it. The ending was amusing and if you can get your hands on this, watch it. You won't be sorry. I love a good 80's slasher movie and this one gets 6/10.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man (Downey Jr.)is at a party in 1999 with a friend Maya Hansen(Rebecca Hall) and he meets a guy called Aldrich Killian(Pearce) who is a scientist with a limp. He wants Tony to join his company, but Stark rejects his idea and embarrasses him. Cut to present day and Stark is experiencing panic attacks after what happened in The Avengers movie. A guy called The Mandarin(Ben Kingsley) is making videos and showing his intentions. He starts to plant bombs and he is being sought by the FBI etc. Tony has to overcome his problems to get this guy. He dares him to come to his house and take him on. Stark isn't ready for what happens when The Mandarin does show up and he blows his house to pieces. He manages to escape in an Iron Man suit along with his girlfriend, Pepper Potts(Paltrow). He is believed to have died. Hansen had come up with Extremis, which is a treatment which allows limbs to regenerate. It has been used in some war veterans, but the problem is that it can cause them to explode.

Now comes a really silly plot line. The Mandarin turns out to be a British actor called Trevor and he is just pretending to be the head of a terrorist organisation. The real boss is none other than Killian who has changed since his meeting with Stark in 1999. This seems really silly to me as I was under the impression that The Mandarin was a Chinese villain but these movies are never like the comics. Anyway, Stark has to find Killian. Killian grabs Pepper Potts and subjects her to Extremis. It also turns out that Hansen was working with him but has a change of heart at the last moment but gets killed. Stark and Killian face off. They have a fight but it is Pepper Potts who kills him. In the end, Stark has his chest reactor taken off and he has an operation to remove the shrapnel near his heart.Potts has the Extremis removed so she is fine. Is this the end of Iron Man? I doubt it. He has to come back for the Avengers etc so there will be more movies!There is a post credit scene of Stark talking to Dr. Bruce Banner(Mark Ruffalo) who dozed off as Stark was telling him his tale...

This was much better than Iron Man 2 and there is loads of action here. Downey Jr. is good as Stark and Pearce was good as the baddie and there was so much happening that you didn't mind the long running time. If you like a good superhero movie, then this is for you! I give it an 8/10.